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Garda

A source claimed: “They’re victimising and threatening the person and then they’re dealing their drugs from there. Really the crack-cocaine issue has come to a head and there’s a lot of people making money here on the back of other people’s issues and putting lives at risk.

“They knock at the door and say, ‘I have a box of beer, would you like it?’

“They get in and that person’s threatened and they take over and start running their operations out of those houses.

“In the last six months I’ve heard of five houses being taken over but there would probably be others I’m not aware of. There was one beside me and the lady has been evicted for years. They got in on her house and they beat her up and all sorts of people were using the house to deal.

Cllr Noeleen Reilly

“That lady ended up surrendering the house because the residents were going up the wall and that’s how the council got the house back.”

Independent Councillor Noeleen Reilly said the most vulnerable in society need support.

She added: “This is where the law really lets us down in terms of local authority housing.